1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relate to a driving-environment setup system which sets up a driving environment of a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, in a vehicle, various setups are possible, such as a seat position, a steering wheel position, angles of various mirrors, an air-conditioning setup, an audio system setup, and a navigation system setup. The driving environment of the vehicle can be changed according to a driver's liking. However, when two or more users share the same vehicle to drive, a driving environment must be set up whenever a driver changes,.
Accordingly, JP-A-2003-237504 proposes a system which recognizes a driver who rides a vehicle and sets the driving environment of the vehicle as a driving environment for the recognized driver. In this system, a scanner for taking an image of the picture of a driver's license is installed in the vehicle, and a user who rides the vehicle operates the scanner to take his or her image of the driver's license. By the above operation, the driving environment of the vehicle is set as the driving environment for the driver recognized through the scanner.
In the above-described construction, a user who rides a vehicle does not need to perform the operation itself to set up the driving environment of the vehicle, but needs to operate a scanner to take an image of a driver's license. Therefore, the user is made conscious of the setting operation of the driving environment. In order to set up a driving environment of a vehicle, without making a user conscious of the setting operation of the driving environment, there may be provided a construction, in which a user is made to carry a portable device that stores information regarding a driving environment for the user, for example, and the vehicle automatically acquires the information from the portable device of the user when the user rides the vehicle.
Such construction will work satisfactorily if there is only one user who rides the vehicle. However, when two or more users, each possessing a portable device, ride the vehicle, it is easy to imagine that the driving environment of the vehicle will be set as a driving environment for an occupant other than the driver (a fellow passenger).